posted at 3:01 pm on December 14, 2012 by Mary Katharine Ham

CNN reports the suspect is Ryan Lanza, a white male in his early 20s. He died in the school, but it’s unclear how he died. CBS News is reporting he’s from the Newtown area, his mother had been living in the area, and some students killed may have been students of his mother, who taught at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

[Updated at 2:11 p.m. ET] CNN’s Susan Candiotti has just reported that a law enforcement official tells her the suspect is named Ryan Lanza and he is in his 20s.

I will not be showing a picture of the shooter because it appears that many, many news outlets and thousands of tweeters distributed the photo of the first Ryan Lanza they found on Facebook, and it was not the correct Ryan Lanza. Tweets a man claiming to be the friend of the incorrectly identified Lanza:

https://twitter.com/Fletch788/status/279668466150166528

I’ll just stand by on this because it’s all very uncertain and I really do not want to accuse anyone other than the actual Ryan Lanza of committing this horrible crime.

I want to be careful about all of this, because details remain hazy, but I will just tell you who’s reporting what and reinforce that reports are preliminary and may change.

CBS News says it has confirmed that Lanza’s mother was a teacher at the school and was killed, but it’s unclear whether she died on school grounds. There were reports earlier in the day that his mother might have been killed in a home connected to the shooter, but CBS is now reporting there is a body at the home connected with the suspect.

BREAKING — Body found at a family residence of CT school gunman, CBS News reports.

The gunman, who was believed to be in his 20s, walked into a classroom where his mother was a teacher. He shot and killed her and then shot 18 students in the classroom. He also shot seven other adults.The gunman then killed himself inside the school. The shooting ranks among the worst in recent United States history.

The gunman delilberately went to Sandy Hook Elementary School with the intention of killing his mother who was a kindergarten teacher at the school, according to NBC Channel 4.

According to the report, the gunman left a Hoboken, NJ home where there apparently is a victim. It is believed that the gunman then went to Sandy Hook where his mother worked as a teacher and began shooting near the principal’s office. The shooter then went to his mother’s kindergarten classroom and killed her and her students, according to the report.

Update: AP reports police have Ryan Lanza’s brother in custody, but unclear whether it’s just to gather information or as connected in some way.

Update: The President will speak at 3:15 p.m. at the White House, addressing the nation.

Update: With the shooter’s body inside the school, police found two handguns. One was a Sig Sauer, the other a Glock 9mm. In his vehicle, police found a .223 caliber rifle, according to CBS News reporting.

Update: Livestream of the president’s statement will be here. Connecticut Gov. Malloy will speak this afternoon, also. Flags have been ordered to half-staff at the Capitol:

The official also said Ryan Lanza’s girlfriend and another friend are missing in New Jersey.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the suspect is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Update: In a second press conference, Gov. Malloy said “the perpetrator of the crime is dead as is an individual who the perpetrator lived with.”

Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police reported that 18 children were pronounced dead at the scene, two at local hospitals, and six adults were killed. There was one person injured. Vance also said there’s a secondary crime scene in Newtown with an additional “adult victim” at that scene.

Update (AP): There’s a major conflict in news reports right now. According to the New York Post, the shooter’s name is Adam Lanza, not Ryan. Ryan is his brother and is being questioned by police but, per the Post, is not a suspect. The AP, however, says it is indeed Ryan who’s the shooter and that his brother is the one who’s being questioned. Needless to say, treat every last bit of news about this story as unconfirmed for the next several hours.

And judging from my Twitter feed, it’d be wise to stay away from social media altogether.

Update (AP): At the White House, Carney wisely decides to punt the inevitable gun-control debate to next week.

Update (AP): Looks like the Post might have been right about the shooter’s identity. Cops now say the shooter was 20 and that his older brother is being questioned. Adam Lanza is the younger brother according to the NYP.

Update (AP): Fearless prediction, as Twitter fills up with angry liberals pounding the table about gun control: As the story comes out, we’ll find out that the guy responsible displayed many, many signs of mental illness over the past year or so and that they were all but ignored by virtually everyone around him.

Update (AP): Yep, even the AP is now naming Adam, not Ryan, Lanza as the shooter. If Ryan’s blameless in all this, his newly hellish existence got a bit more hellish today thanks to the media.

Update (AP):Ace is right that the typical mass murderer is a mentally-ill sad-sack loser who’s bad at work, bad with women, and who finally snaps in frustration at his own momentous loserdom. Usually it’s a break-up or a pink slip that sets him off and usually the targets are strangers. Not this time, though: The shooter’s just 20 years old and he went to the trouble of driving to his mother’s school to kill her — and 20 kids — after allegedly killing other family members at home. That’s an odd combination of specific and random targeting. What exactly was the crux of this guy’s grudge?

Ryan Lanza, 24, brother of gunman Adam Lanza, 20, tells authorities that his younger brother is autistic, or has Asperger syndrome and a “personality disorder.” Neighbors described the younger man to ABC as “odd” and displaying characteristics associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“The teachers wrote down the names of all the children,’’ said Monsignor. Robert Weiss, the pastor at St. Rose of Lima in Newtown. “The ones who were unaccounted for, those parents went to another room and wrote their names on a list.”

“It was around, obviously,” he added, “the number that passed away.”

Update (AP): Nightmarish details from People magazine, who spoke to a mother of one of the students at the school:

According to the woman, the shooter, who is confirmed dead at the scene “went into the [principal's] office, started arguing, and he killed people in the office,” before going into a classroom.

Another parent visiting the school at the time tells PEOPLE he “could hear shots in the hall and glass breaking.” And an NPR interview with one of the school’s teachers revealed that the school’s PA system was on the whole time, amplifying the shots throughout the school.

Update (AP): Against all odds, the shooting continues to get more bizarre:

The shooter, who sources identified as Adam Lanza, 20, shot his mother in the face at their home in Newtown, Conn., then went to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School where she taught and gunned down her entire class, according to sources…

Vance also said that a “deceased adult” was found at a “secondary crime scene,” though he declined to elaborate.

The thinking until now was that he had some sort of insane grudge against mom that led him to follow her to school, kill her in the classroom, and then open fire on the kids around her as collateral damage. Not so, if Fox’s sources are right. His mother was already dead at home before anything happened at the school. For whatever lunatic reason, after killing her he felt obliged to get in his car, drive down there, and then start shooting at kindergarteners.

The other mystery is who the “deceased adult” was at the other “secondary crime scene.” Reuters reported earlier that it was Lanza’s brother, but cops now say no. Who was it?

Update (AP): Info on the guns from Fox News, per Johnny Dollar:

Confirmed: the three guns used in the shooting were owned by shooter’s mother, per @billhemmer

Update (AP):CNN backs up Fox’s report that the guns were legally purchased by Lanza’s mother, and claims that the rifle was found in the trunk of a car parked at the school. Did he only use the two pistols during his attack, or did he have the rifle out at some point before returning it to the car? And if he didn’t have it out, why not? Seems like, if you’re of a mind to commit a mass shooting, you’d want to use the biggest weapon you have.

Like Greg Pollowitz, I’m eager to hear the progressive policy solution to a nutcase stealing his law-abiding mother’s legally-bought guns.

Update (AP): I’m clicking around on Connecticut’s judicial website of gun regulations to see how many violations this guy is probably guilty of under current law. After a cursory five-minute search, I’ve got at least 10. One: Assuming mom didn’t lend him the two pistols and rifle, he’s guilty of three counts of theft. Two: He’s guilty of three counts of possessing a weapon on school grounds. Three: He may be guilty of two counts of criminal possession of a pistol or revolver. Lanza reportedly had a “checkered past” and had been a “troubled youth for most of his life.” We don’t know how checkered because his juvenile records are sealed, but if he was “convicted as delinquent for the commission of a serious juvenile offense” then that’s two more violations, one for possessing each pistol. Four: Per NBC, concealed-carry permits aren’t granted to anyone in Connecticut under the age of 21. That means two more violations for the 20-year-old Lanza for carrying the two pistols. (You don’t need a permit to carry a rifle.) Oh, and if Wikipedia is accurate, Connecticut police are fully entitled to seize weapons in someone’s possession without a warrant if they have probable cause that the suspect is mentally unstable or likely to commit a crime. Go surf around on the gun-laws site and see what else you find. There’s probably stuff I missed.

The obvious objection to all of this is that none of these laws would have kept the guns out of Lanza’s hands. They’re all useful in prosecuting a killer after the fact, not in stopping him beforehand. In that case, what’s the solution? You can’t ban Nancy Lanza from owning a pistol; she has a constitutional right, per the Supreme Court’s Heller decision. Ban Glocks and Sig Sauers, then? Ban any family from owning more than one weapon? Ban any family from owning a weapon if the state determines that a member of the family seems a little too eccentric for comfort?

Update (AP): Mary Katharine e-mails with thoughts:

From earlier, in the second presser, Lt. Vance said two handguns were found w the body and the rifle in the car.

A couple points. If you were of a mind to go into a school w guns concealed somehow–as he might have, considering this started apparently w an altercation in the office instead of going straight to the classroom–you’d likely wanna just carry the two handguns. The rifle would limit mobility and couldn’t be concealed and the handguns would give you plenty of rounds and portability.

Also of interest, if the mom’s rifle was indeed legally purchased, that means it’s NOT an “assault weapon” unless she had it purchased and registered pre-1993. CT bans “assault weapons,” so both that fact and the fact hers likely wasn’t one makes the call for Assault Weapons Ban reinstatement pretty tendentious, right?

Update (AP): Good lord. Lanza’s father learned what his son had done … from a reporter:

“Is there something I can do for you?” he said.

When the reporter told Lanza his address had been linked to the shooting in Newtown, Conn., on the other side of Fairfield County, he “took the news as a blow — his face turning from patient to surprised and horrified” before declining to comment, rolling up his window and driving into the garage, according to the Hearst Connecticut report.

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He will use this for political leverage. You know it. We know it. Yes, we grieve over this horror. At the same time, our childrfens’ and grandchildrens’ future freedom relys on us remaining vigilant and free.

However at the end they will never be able to take our right to bear guns away from us because they need 38 states or two third of Congress to abolish the second amendment and there is no way it is going to happen

According to what, the Constitution?

And we have a President who has always shown the utmost reverence for the Constitution?

And we have a President who has always shown the utmost reverence for the Constitution?

Right Mover on December 14, 2012 at 4:13 PM

The problem here is the logistics of it. Trying to physically remove guns from homes or shops will not go down well. There’s a reason the left is hesitant to go after the gun rights crowd too hard. They have a lot of firepower, literally.

BEIJING (Reuters) – A knife-wielding man slashed 22 children and an adult at an elementary school in central China on Friday, state media reported, the latest in a series of attacks on schoolchildren in the country.

The man attacked the children at the gate of a school in Chenpeng village in Henan province, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Police arrested a 36-year-old man, identified as villager Min Yingjun, Xinhua said. It did not give further details of the extent of the injuries.

There have been a series of attacks on schools and schoolchildren around China in recent years, some by people who have lost their jobs or felt left out of the country’s economic boom.

The rash of violence has prompted public calls for more measures to protect the young in a country where many couples only have one child.

In 2010, a man slashed 28 children, two teachers and a security guard in a kindergarten in eastern China.

What I take away from both incidents is madness & evil target innnocence.

My other $ 0.02 – I believe the other common factor is when governments are not kept in check (our MSM is just as supportive of the Obama administration as the Chinese media is with respect to their communist leadership) and can distort the truth endlessly without consequence … a country and its citizens begin to lose their hold on reality.

How many more of you are going to call the President scum for speaking to a grieving nation? Who else is going to mock him for his emotion?

Nonfactor on December 14, 2012 at 4:09 PM

You know, I haven’t said a word about it, and don’t intend to.

Since you bring it up though, I’ll ask you to expand and share your thoughts regarding journalists and politicians who are going out of their way to 1) glorify the President for it, and 2) use this tragedy for political opportunism.

I never said that. He has a soul alright…and, considering he spent 20 years under a Former American Muslim, in a church where they believe that Jesus was a Revolutionary like Che, I would say that there are some rather dark corners to it.

How in God’s name do you process info like that if your child was in that classroom?

This is truly unfathomably tragic.

Tim_CA on December 14, 2012 at 4:12 PM

Yeah. I need to log off for awhile. I can’t keep hearing updates about this story and be at work. My wife, who is a 2nd grade teacher is going to be emotional tonight I’m sure. This story is just too hard to take.

Forget the guns. How did we get to a place where 20 somethings have something go wrong and start shooting?
The Portland shooter on Wednesday was a 22yo “nice kid”.
Seems to me this is not a gun problem it is a generation problem.

Yes and we have 70% of the military including 90% of the officers staff… The communists know the red line that they cannot cross… for now… May be in the future they will be stupid enough to try and cross that line…

Let the chorus of Captain Hindsights begin. The comments at HP are blaming everyone and everything except the killer. He was clearly being persuaded by evil. And yes, evil exists folks. Just looking back to recent history, we have countless examples of sane people committing lunatic acts. The Nazis and Soviets for example. This guy was evil.

Forget the guns. How did we get to a place where 20 somethings have something go wrong and start shooting?
The Portland shooter on Wednesday was a 22yo “nice kid”.
Seems to me this is not a gun problem it is a generation problem.

ORconservative on December 14, 2012 at 4:20 PM

Not to politicize this too much(that’s the left’s domain), but you notice how a lot of these shootings recently were carried out by dudes in their early 20′s? Well, what demographic has suffered the worst in this economy over the last few years? Young adults with no job, no career, no hope for any future, many of whom are drowning in college loan debt may be more susceptible to snapping than others.

Since you bring it up though, I’ll ask you to expand and share your thoughts regarding journalists and politicians who are going out of their way to 1) glorify the President for it, and 2) use this tragedy for political opportunism.

Just wondering where the boundaries of your outrage extend, thanks.

Midas on December 14, 2012 at 4:15 PM

I know this was addressed to someone else, but allow me my $.02.

Let them get it out of their system. We have the political high ground on this, and we have SCOTUS precedent backing us up. Suck it up, let them vent their anger, and don’t let any loose cannons cede that high ground.

My prayers are with those poor families…I cannot fathom what they are going through right now.

I think I read that the school had implemented new security measures prior to the shooting. Does anyone know what they were?

I would like to see swipe cards mandated for EVERY entry at my kids’ school. Parents (and other approved guardians or adults) should be issued visitor swipe cards which gives them entry ONLY to the front offices where they have to sign in and get their visitor badge before traveling anywhere in the school. Teachers/administration would be the only ones with access to side entry, trailers, gym, etc. If my kids are going to be away from me for 8 hours a day, I’m going to make damn sure no one gets in that isn’t approved. If teachers cannot be armed, then the entire place needs to be on lockdown. It’s ridiculous how easily people can get into our children’s schools…

The Portland shooter on Wednesday was a 22yo “nice kid”.
Seems to me this is not a gun problem it is a generation problem.
ORconservative on December 14, 2012 at 4:20 PM

I quit having serious discussions to late teens and ’20 somethings’ long ago. So many of them spouted things like “Reality is whatever I think it is”, “Good and evil is what I think it is. “Society does not get to define what is good and what is evil for me”.
etc.

And we all know what happens when only the communists in control also control the guns?

redguy on December 14, 2012 at 3:47 PM

Not only “communists” (and, frankly, I don’t see much difference between totalitarian statists). A reminder of what happens when only the state is allowed to possess guns:

Alfred Flatow was a Jewish veteran of the German army, who competed for Germany in the 1896 Olympics.

What if he – and an unknown number of other Germans, Jews and non-Jews alike – had not registered his firearms in 1932? Or if the Weimar Republic had not decreed firearm registration at all? What if the Nazis, when they took power in 1933 and disarmed social democrats and other political enemies, or when they decided to repress the entire Jewish population in 1938, did not have police records of registered firearm owners?

Can it be said with certainty that no one, either individually or in groups small or large, would have resisted Nazi depredations?

One wonders what thoughts may have occurred to Alfred Flatow in 1942 when he was dying of starvation at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Perhaps memories of the 1896 Olympics and of a better Germany flashed before his eyes. Did he have second thoughts, maybe repeated many times before, on whether he should have registered his revolver and two pocket pistols in 1932 as decreed by the Weimar Republic? Or whether he should have obediently surrendered them at a Berlin police station in 1938 as ordered by Nazi decree, only to be taken into Gestapo custody?

We will never know, but it is difficult to imagine that he had no regrets.

What did I bring up other than the disgusting behavior of many of the commentators on this website? The behavior that bemoans “the left” for insensitivity yet in the same breath calls the President scum for speaking to the nation, that gleefully exclaims that he has no soul.

The group think here is so horrible that many of you think yourself righteous in decrying anything that the President says, even if it is genuine and heartfelt.

“We need to take meaningful action to prevent such tragedies, regardless of the politics…”

-Obama

Hmmm… More executive orders coming our way, I presume.

labrat on December 14, 2012 at 4:19 PM

Translating the Dear Liars words: We need to take advantage of this serious crisis to deprive the law-abiding of their ability to defend themselves – and we need to dictate those changes to the Republicans.

Criticize Obama for making a statement? Sure, I will. He says he sees this not as a President, but as a father with children. Not everyone has children. When Romney said his tax cut argument won’t appeal to the 47% who don’t pay taxes, Obama sanctimoniously said when you’re President you have to be President of all the people.

Obama thinks you need to be a parent to appreciate this loss? I’m so sick of him invoking Sasha and Malia to explain his concern for public events. He’s so wrapped up in himself he can’t comprehend there are others with experiences different from his who have feelings that are just as valid as his.

Don’t EOs only apply to the government (like, they can’t be used against the population)? I wonder what the upshot (no pun) would be if he issued an EO directing some branch of the gov’t to violate our 2nd Amendment rights…

What did I bring up other than the disgusting behavior of many of the commentators on this website? The behavior that bemoans “the left” for insensitivity yet in the same breath calls the President scum for speaking to the nation, that gleefully exclaims that he has no soul.

The group think here is so horrible that many of you think yourself righteous in decrying anything that the President says, even if it is genuine and heartfelt.

Nonfactor on December 14, 2012 at 4:28 PM

Thanks, this answers my question perfectly, and just as I expected. Your outrage is fairly selective and disingenuous. Move along, please.

as Twitter fills up with angry liberals pounding the table about gun contro

I think conservatives should draft the repeal amendment for the 2nd. Libs obviously aren’t gonna do it themselves because they are empty whiners. Scotus has established quite a lot by now regarding the meaning of the 2nd, so their tantrums are a waste of time, unless they go for repeal. Give them the rope…

The behavior that bemoans “the left” for insensitivity yet in the same breath calls the President scum for speaking to the nation, that gleefully exclaims that he has no soul.
Nonfactor on December 14, 2012 at 4:28 PM

When you’ve sold something (or gave it away), it doesn’t belong to you anymore.

This is not a weapons issue. This is a society issue, this is what we have become. So many people scared to death to discipline their own children in fear of retaliation from the state; so many wanting G-d to be taken out of the public’s lives. What a pathetic road we have chosen to travel. If, anything, this only proves we need a new map. The current one is severely broken. Man this just really breaks my heart.

I would like to see swipe cards mandated for EVERY entry at my kids’ school. Parents (and other approved guardians or adults) should be issued visitor swipe cards which gives them entry ONLY to the front offices where they have to sign in and get their visitor badge before traveling anywhere in the school. Teachers/administration would be the only ones with access to side entry, trailers, gym, etc. If my kids are going to be away from me for 8 hours a day, I’m going to make damn sure no one gets in that isn’t approved. If teachers cannot be armed, then the entire place needs to be on lockdown. It’s ridiculous how easily people can get into our children’s schools…

Bee on December 14, 2012 at 4:25 PM

The schools my kids go to have the doors locked and require visitors to be ID’d before entering. However, the security isn’t sufficient to stop an armed attack. The Newton school evidently recently increased its security, which wasn’t enough. It’s a tough problem to solve.

Update (AP): Reuters claims another Lanza brother is dead at the family home.

Good Lord, this dude just went off. The left better back away from the anti-gun talk cuz this sounds like a seriously sick guy snapped. The guns were merely the means with which he inflicted pain and suffering on a bunch of innocent people. If it hadn’t been the guns, it would’ve been some other weapon.

Yep, even the AP is now naming Adam, not Ryan, Lanza as the shooter. If Ryan’s blameless in all this, his newly hellish existence got a bit more hellish today thanks to the media.

They’ve utterly embarrassed themselves. If the shooter had the wrong ID on him I can understand the initial confusion, but to report it as if confirmed, along with other details that are now murky (father alive or dead?), is absolutely irresponsible.

Say a prayer also for the cops and responders who had to enter that abattoir. I can’t imagine opening the door to a room of slaughtered children or having to pick them up, which is why I’m not a cop, I could never do that job.

I’m just now composing myself after breaking down a bit, how does someone deal with seeing it firsthand?

Interesting how lefties are outraged at this and are ready to blame hunks of metal and plastic but when it comes to the millions of dead babies in the womb they don’t blame the scissors or the saline solution.

Look no further than the Devil and the evil culture (recruiting grounds) the liberals have created for him. Evil first-shooter video games, music and movies. All invite satan in. Sadly, the media will never report the names of the games etc. they find in this killer’s room/house.

My condolences to the families of the dead. And for so many with their children snatched from them by such horror, my words and deepest sympathy cannot express my feelings for you.

For the wounded I send my wishes for a speedy and full recovery.

The one who did this is beyond our justice and his fate is sealed by his own hand. And do remember it is the hand of someone with ill intent who did this and such ill intent is not stopped by lack of easy means, especially if it is in places of far distance to each other. That requires planning and murder aforethought. Once the intent starts, then there is little that can be done save for those who know and love the individual to see what they are doing and attempt to stop them and see if they still have reason within their grasp. No government can ever do that for society, only the members of society can do that for themselves because only love for a person can let you see them when their human nature runs rampant over all reason… mere power does not suffice.

Good Lord, this dude just went off. The left better back away from the anti-gun talk cuz this sounds like a seriously sick guy snapped. The guns were merely the means with which he inflicted pain and suffering on a bunch of innocent people. If it hadn’t been the guns, it would’ve been some other weapon.

Doughboy on December 14, 2012 at 4:35 PM

And, reportedly, the guns were LEGALLY purchased by and registered to his mum.

They’ve utterly embarrassed themselves. If the shooter had the wrong ID on him I can understand the initial confusion, but to report it as if confirmed, along with other details that are now murky (father alive or dead?), is absolutely irresponsible.

Guys, I’m just tuning into this thread and my patience is already thin. If you want to indulge in violent bravado about the alleged coming war over guns, do it elsewhere.

Allahpundit on December 14, 2012 at 4:28 PM

Why did you remove my post? All what I said to the communist scum “lostmotherland” when he threatens violence to take our guns is that we have the vast majority of the military on our side, the vast majority of the guns owners on our side, and the majority of law enforcement on our side so if they start this stupidity the communists will be outgunned and outnumbered…

The group think here is so horrible that many of you think yourself righteous in decrying anything that the President says, even if it is genuine and heartfelt.

Nonfactor on December 14, 2012 at 4:28 PM

The problem you’re going to run into in regards to the President is, when is the last time he’s shown genuine emotion/issued a heartfelt statement that didn’t have political machinations? Most of us here see his default setting as ‘never let a crisis go to waste’.